Is Emerging Track Star Caster Semenya A He Or She? (Video)

Prior to the IAAF World Athletics Championships now going on in Berlin, few had ever heard of Miss Caster Semenya, er, Mr. Caster Semenya? No, we’re not trying to be even remotely funny about Caster Semenya’s sex. OK, yes we are, but only a little.

The truth of the matter is that the 18-year-old runner, who’s setting records in the female competitions, is being accused of being a male. Caster Semenya, 18, of South African had to take a gender test after doubts were raised about her sex.

The teenage sensation has sparked controversy because of her strikingly muscular physique. On top of that piece of “evidence,” Semenya, has very manly sounding speaking voice and can run the 800 meter 2 seconds faster than the next fastest girl in the world. Aha! What more do you need to prove she is or she isn’t, if you know what we mean. (Scroll down to watch interview with her.)

But seriously, how would you like to be in this person’s track shoes? If it’s true that she’s not a female, you have to wonder what he’s going through his mind knowing that he’s about to be exposed to the world as a fake.

If indeed she’s truly a female, you have to wonder how she’s enduring all the scrutiny about her sexuality. That must be awful.

And then there’s the possibility that Semenya is both; wouldn’t that be well, interesting?

But not to worry because, in a recent interview, her 80-year-old grandmother, Maphuthi Sekgala, said Semenya had been teased when she was younger for her boyish looks.

She was also the only girl in the football team in Fairlie, a village in South Africa’s northern Limpopo Province.

“If the teasing hurt her, she kept the hurt to herself and didn’t show what she was feeling,” she said.

South Africa’s athletics federation also says it is “completely sure” that Ms Semenya is a female.

South African athletics chiefs also furiously denied the claims and stated Semenya was definitely female.

Molatelo Malehopo, general manager of Athletics South Africa, said: ‘She is a female. We are completely sure about that and we wouldn’t have entered her into the female competition if we had any doubts.

‘We have not been absent-minded, we are very sure of her gender. We are aware of the claims that have been made but our aim at the moment is to prepare Caster for the race this evening.’

Semenya was ordered to take the test after raising suspicion during an incredible performance at a junior championship.

The teenager, from Polokwane in South Africa’s Limpopo province, burst onto the running scene at last month’s African Junior Championship in Mauritius where she clocked 1:56.72 in the 800 metres.

The time was the best recorded in the world so far this year by more than a second.

I feel bad for her because she probably has been mocked all her life. At least she can be finally do something that she can be proud of. Besides, why are they questioning her gender now after she won. If there was a problem, they should have checked her out discreetly before the race instead of embarrassing her after she won.